Musharraf’s
Maxims
By Dr Ahmad Faruqui
Dansville, CA
Rumor has it that General
Musharraf has penned his memoirs and they should
be coming out in a year or two. Presumably, they
will describe how he saved Pakistan through enlightened
moderation and be an instant best seller.
It would have been more interesting if the general
had instead laid out the maxims through which
he made military dictatorship an icon of admiration
in the West. Musharraf’s Maxims, unlike
Napoleon’s, would focus on the art of politics
rather than the art of war. Five come to mind.
First, camouflage your military dictatorship with
democratic lingo. And should someone else call
you a military dictator, feign umbrage. That is
exactly what Musharraf did during his April 28
interview with the Guardian newspaper. Of course,
even Saddam Hussain maintains that he became president
of Iraq by the will of the people.
Unlike prior dictators, Musharraf has not declared
martial law. It is sufficient that the people
know that the corps commanders have more power
than provincial governors or chief ministers.
Nor has he suspended the constitution, simply
amended it. He has given more military officers
senior civilian positions than anyone else. But,
to conceal their khaki identity, they don’t
mention their military rank.
Second, make yourself the embodiment of liberal
Western values. Soon after he seized power in
October 1999, the general appeared in causal Western
clothes cuddling two Chinese dogs in his arms.
This contrasted nicely with images of gun-toting
fundos.
Because of his carefully crafted image, Musharraf
is included in Time magazine’s list of the
100 most influential people in 2006. The magazine
credits him with being “The West’s
best bet for peace.” Last year, an American
talk show host said that Musharraf was single-handedly
holding back a swarm of 150 million terrorists.
So Musharraf has attained the status of an Urban
Legend who can go on wearing those military fatigues
indefinitely because without them, the West would
lose the war on terror.
Third, never admit to weakness. The specific charge
levied against Musharraf during the Guardian interview
was that he was Bush’s poodle. The charge
must have flattered him, since that placed him
in the same league as Tony Blair. But Musharraf
denied it. He said that he had condemned the US’
violation of Pakistan’s sovereignty when
it had fired missiles into a Pakistani village.
He forgot conveniently that at the time of the
incident, he had mostly talked about how other
“foreigners” (read Arabs) were violating
Pakistan’s sovereignty. Soon after the incident,
his prime minister traveled to Washington where
he did not even mention the topic of sovereignty,
let alone ask for any apology. Being an honorable
man, Aziz was not about to bite the hand that
fed him.
The general told the Guardian that he was his
own man, a gentle and soft man, but a man who
had real teeth that he would not hesitate to use
when needed. When questioned about the threats
to national integrity posed by military action
in Waziristan and Balochistan, he labeled those
questioning him as pygmies. No statesman of any
repute has used that slur to berate his opponents
in a rather long time.
For a few minutes, the dictator essentially admitted
that he was one. He had gone back to being the
general who, fresh after his coup d’etat,
had concluded his October 19, 1999 Guardian interview
with candor:
"Are you enjoying yourself, sir?”
"To put it frankly, it is always nice to
be in charge"
In the months to come, he would create a myth
about being an accidental ruler. He was destined
to rule, without ever having wanted to rule. He
did not carry out a coup but a counter coup, in
self-defense against someone who tried to kill
him.
Fourth, let no one can question your judgment.
Thus, his handpicked prime minister can declare
to the world at large that Pakistan’s per
capita income had doubled during the last four
years. For per capita income to double in four
years, it would have to grow at 25 percent a year.
With population growing at 2 percent a year, this
would suggest that national income had grown at
27 percent a year. But GDP growth has averaged
between 6 and 8 percent a year during the past
four years. So how could national income have
grown at a rate almost four times higher than
GDP? In his spare time, Aziz needs to begin penning
a new economics textbook.
What should one do if someone assails your accomplishments
by calling your country a failed state, as did
the recent study sponsored by Foreign Policy magazine?
While one may quibble with any such ranking, it
does call into question the dictator’s claims
to have rescued the country from failure and to
have performed an economic turnaround that borders
on the miraculous. So how does Musharraf respond?
By ignoring the insult and having one of his lackeys
debunk the study.
Fifth, surround yourself with a chain of sycophants.
Let them suggest that you must remain in power
much longer than your life expectancy. So if you
stay in power for even half that long, it won’t
look unreasonable.
Based on the general’s recent statements,
he is planning to stay in power through 2012,
all under the guise of creating sustainable democracy.
And as that year approaches, expect the deadline
to shift to the year 2017. Not bad for a man who
was given a three-year term by the Supreme Court.
Musharraf is taking Pakistan down a path where
the end state will be a totalitarian dystopia.
One such state is dramatized in the recent film,
“V for Vendetta.” Based on a novel
by Alan Moore, a darkly philosophical cult figure,
it is set in Britain. A “High Chancellor”
rules the country with an iron hand, places the
entire population under surveillance and imprisons
anyone who is remotely a threat.
To bring an end to the absolute corruption of
absolute power, the anti-hero V, who has survived
internment at the dictator’s biological
experimental camp, and who wears a Guy Fawkes
mask, has the dictator killed by one of the dictator’s
henchman in a gunfight. V then drives a train
full of explosives into the Houses of Parliament,
an action that is applauded by the populace since
it is heralds the end of dystopia.
Hopefully, the people of Pakistan won’t
have to resort to such extreme measures to gain
their political freedoms. To avoid inflicting
Orwellian terror on his fellow citizens in Pakistan,
General Musharraf needs to take his well-deserved
retirement. Now.
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